Mindfulness at Work: Start today with one mindful moment
How do we cultivate and foster Mindfulness at work, one day at a time?
Imagine a world where we wake up every morning and say, “Hey, Good Morning! I want to be mindful at work today” and see where it goes and make a conscious choice every moment of the day.
When I joined this leadership role in Sept 2020, I didn’t really know how to bring mindfulness and meditation into my day-to-day until I came across Wise@Work.
I’ve been learning about mindfulness for over the past year. 2020 has been a year of uncertainty, a year of self-reflection and understanding “What is most important to you”?
And a year of slowing down in all phases of life.
And that’s where mindfulness has been a blessing because it has taught me to be fully present in the here and now, at work and and in life.
Mindfulness is in everything we do: from waking up in the morning to taking a deep breath, finding ways to reduce anxiety, being proactive and organized with what needs to get done in a specific day. It’s an art and science coupled together, it’s about finding the equanimity amidst the chaos, reaching the balance and the tao.
So, today I wanted to share what does a mindful day looks like for me and how you can create your own. When I was diagnosed with GAD(Generalized Anxiety Disorder) in Feb 2020, I knew I couldn’t keep doing the same things and expect different results. Change was inevitable and I am embracing 2021 as my year of breakthrough, to speak up and not bottle up my concerns deep within. I am hoping this will help break the stigma and allow each of us to be human, to care and value each other’s contributions.
One moment at a time, one day at a time.
The idea of one day at a time, helped me to be fully in the present and just focus on today. And if today didn’t go as planned, that’s okay, tomorrow is another beautiful day.
I wake up some days at 4am or 5am and there are days sometimes when I’m up at 2am and takes a few hours to go back to sleep. And that’s okay, as long as I’m getting at least six to seven hours of sleep.With Google Fit, I started to pay attention to my sleep patterns and track progress.
Now that’s progress because there were times through the past year when I was getting only four to five hours of sleep or phases of sleep.
My first ritual is going to the gym for a 20 minute workout these days. I enjoy the self-reflection ride with Christine. It does magic, bringing movement and thoughts together and helps me get ready for the day.
And after breakfast, then I go for at least 30 minute walk and the days that I don’t get to do that, I can tell the difference.
And then at 7:55 am, we have a 3 minute, mindfulness practice with the Wise@Work meeting starter. Every week day is a different theme:
Monday: teamwork
Tuesday: focus and productivity
Wednesday: setting intention
Thursday: creativity
Friday: calm
LinkedIn is the champion for mindfulness and compassion at work and hosts weekly meditations.
Every biweekly team meeting, we open up with the three minute mindfulness, practice and it helps us reset and be present in the meeting.
Last week, I opened up our review call with leadership with a two-minute mindfulness practice: Setting Intention. Initially, I think folks were hesitant, but I got one positive feedback, so I’ll take that for what it’s worth.
Be fully present: Break your week and day into chunks
Breaking your day into chunks, helps manage it better. So I started with blocking of time in the morning for focus, but that now ends up becoming more meetings than focus time. Some day I will figure this one out, not today.
I have one hour blocked for lunch and there are days when I get maybe 15 minutes, but at least I have that dedicated time versus not having time to eat lunch or eating during a meeting. I am learning to pay respect to the food I eat and make the time to eat mindfully.
Now, breakfast, lunch and dinner is a ritual or a practice in itself to be fully present with your meal while you’re eating at verses thinking about what’s the next project you want to work on? Or the meeting that you just had before lunch.
In the afternoon, make sure you’re taking the time to check-in with yourself and wrap up the day. I have 30 minutes blocked off at the end of the day 3:30 to 4pm every day. Having the 8am-4pm work schedule discipline has been a blessing indeed to separate work and life.
Friday Pulse
On Fridays, I have added 15 minute check-in for Friday pulse so I can reflect back on the week and share with my team in our Teams channel: celebrations, thank you, frustrations and ideas from the week. It’s helped in a great way to unwind the week and get ready for the weekend :)
No Meeting Wednesday
I’m still persistent on No meeting Wednesdays — a day to actually focus on work and not just go from one meeting to another. That’s probably been the hardest one, because, no matter how much you want to do it, if your work environment is not supportive, it’s hard to make it happen, but I’m not giving up here because I will continue to try and try till I succeed.
Over the past two months, “no meeting Wednesday” probably went out the window because there’s always some meeting that got added even though I had it marked as “out of office”, just because others didn’t respect/care about the same methodology or framework.
Save the Inbox
How can we bring mindfulness into our emails?
How do we make sure that every email that we sent is just like the one that we would like to receive
I’m encouraged to start a “save the inbox campaign” because I think we’ve taken our email inbox for granted. It’s another source of information overload.
When I went on a one week holiday, I came back to find 200 emails in my inbox. It took me over 10 days to actually get through all of them, because there were days that I didn’t have time to look at email for even 30 minutes. And there were days where I had to block off at least three hours just to catch up on email.
Let’s use technology to its best intent and ask these questions:
When we send an email, is it for a broader audience?
Is it something that we could send over a chat or IM
Is there an action needed or is this only FYI
I don’t think I used to take so much time to think about email but that’s the last endeavor that I want to uncover and make sure that I am thinking about email with undue respect and being mindful.
Time-off and vacation
If you feel like you’re on autopilot and this year feels like a lot because we haven’t really had vacations or time offs, then I highly encourage you to take your well deserved time-off and vacation.
Because whether you realize it or not your body and your mind needs it. This is something that I’ve been encouraging myself and my team to do — take care of ourselves so we can take care of each other and our families.
I am reading the book on Burnout and its all so real — emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased sense of accomplishment. It’s important to release the stress cycle and not hold within.
Where to start?
Each of us can bring mindfulness one step at a time. Here are a few good resources, experts have shared with me. Let’s embark on this mindfulness journey together and bring compassion and lovingkindness to our workplace.